I recently purchased a Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet that comes with Windows 8.1 installed and thought I'd try out PapyWizard to see if it would work. The short answer is - it doesn't. It won't connect to a serial port at all, either using a Keyspan USB to RS232 adapter (with their latest 8.1 driver) or the virtual serial port created when pairing the tablet with the Bluetooth module via Windows. If I connect directly using the Bluetooth option in Papywizard as mediavets did, it will perform the first command but none others. For example, I can rotate in one direction and stop, then the drive won't do anything else except make an occasional noise. I've tried different versions of Papywizard and different compatibility settings with no luck. Looks like we've reached the end of the line for compatible versions of Windows.I did download Visual Studio to see how difficult it would be to make a Windows Metro version of a panorama head driver. I have some experience with VB and JavaScript but the new development environment and compatibility issues make it look a lot more intimidating than it used to be. It remains to be seen if this will become anything more than wishful thinking on my part. In the meantime I'll keep using my Nokia 810.

phill.butte wrote:I recently purchased a Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet that comes with Windows 8.1 installed and thought I'd try out PapyWizard to see if it would work. The short answer is - it doesn't. It won't connect to a serial port at all, either using a Keyspan USB to RS232 adapter (with their latest 8.1 driver) or the virtual serial port created when pairing the tablet with the Bluetooth module via Windows. If I connect directly using the Bluetooth option in Papywizard as mediavets did, it will perform the first command but none others. For example, I can rotate in one direction and stop, then the drive won't do anything else except make an occasional noise. I've tried different versions of Papywizard and different compatibility settings with no luck. Looks like we've reached the end of the line for compatible versions of Windows........In the meantime I'll keep using my Nokia 810.

Remind me - when was it I reported success using Papywizard with Windows 8 pre-release?

Just checked my Windows 8.1 Pro system and Papywizard was not installed on it.

OK - I have Papywizard (latest dev release from papywizard.org) working on Windows 8.1 pro 64-bit.

I am using the cheap generic BT USB device as mentioned above.

Default MS BT drivers. Be aware that Papywizard doesn't like many third-party Bluetooth drivers! Perhaps that's the problem with your new laptop? If so, try getting rid of any non-MS BT drivers and letting Windows 8.1 install its own drivers

And a Papymerlin BT adapter on the Merlin mount.

It was bit fidlding to get the BT USB device and the Papymerlin paired up in Windows - before running Papywizard - for some reason every successive version of Windows XP, then 7 and now 8.1 makes setting up BT devices ever more arcane and counter-intuitive, now with 8.1 it keeps throwing one into some Metro window - ugh!.

Papywizard's BT Chooser failed to enable me to make a direct BT connection.

But I was able to make a successful serial connection via the virtual COM port, and was able to perform a shoot and record an XML file.

mediavets,The post of yours I was referring to was the one where you used it on 8, not 8.1. Sorry for not being more clear.

I'm using Windows 8.1, 32 bit standard edition. And I'm using the default MS Bluetooth drivers connecting the same way you did. So there's either a difference between the 32 and 64 bit MS drivers, the way the Dell Venue tablet deals with them, or the way the BT dongle I made for my AllView deals with the 8.1 drivers vs. 7 (or all of the above).

My problem running Papywizard on Windows 8.1 on a Dell Venue 8 tablet is now solved. While trying to fix a problem with the sensitivity on the on-screen keyboard I came across Dell driver updates for the tablet's Qualcomm BT chip and a newer version of the bios. After applying those with the other Dell recommended updates, Papywizard connects and works fine over the native BT connection without using the virtual serial terminal.